Gone, by Michael Grant (HarperTeen, 2008)

Without warning, everyone fifteen and older vanishes from the small town of Perdido Beach, California, and everywhere else within twenty miles of the local nuclear power plant, including an exclusive prep school catering to troublesome teens. Cut off from the rest of the world by a strange energy field, the kids are left to fend for themselves and form a new society, one threatened by indecision, inexperience, and ruthless power struggles. Worse still, animals are mutating, an alien intelligence lurks in the dark, and certain kids are developing strange superhuman abilities, to be used for good, or evil. With people disappearing as they reach their fifteenth birthday, time is running out for them all, but internal fighting may destroy them first. Imaginative and captivating, Gone is a tense thriller, highly reminiscent of early Stephen King and hard to put down. I can hardly wait to see where Grant takes this storyline from here.


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